The team that designed the world's fastest helicopter explain how they got into the biz.

As Kevin Bredenbeck, the chief test pilot at Sikorsky Aircraft, prepared to lift the revolutionary X2 helicopter off the ground, he knew he was making aviation history. "It got quiet on the radio," Bredenbeck says. "There were probably 30 seconds where nobody talked. They knew, and I knew, that this was it. It was time to pick the aircraft up, and that was probably the only point of realization of what was about to happen, because then I went back to the procedure and the mechanics of flying." With the successful flight of the X2 technology demonstrator in August 2008, the engineering team that created it proved that their stacked rotor design had solved the conundrum of dissymmetry of lift--a phenomenon that has prevented helicopters from safely exceeding 185 mph. The trick is a coaxial rotor system whose blades spin in opposite directions, generating constant lift.

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The chance to make aviation history drew Steve Cizewski, now Sikorsky's X2 program manager, to the X2. "I was working on another project, but I instantly recognized that this was something that was going to change rotorcraft," Cizewski says. "That's really one of the cool things about this job." But it was planespotting, not historical study, that attracted this engineer to aviation. At the 2009 Breakthrough Awards last week, Popular Mechanics caught up with Cizewski, Bredenbeck and three other X2 men to ask what inspired them to pursue their careers.

Steve Cizewski, X2 Program Manager

I grew up in Queens, underneath one of the approaches to LaGuardia Airport, so my whole childhood was spent with planes overhead. And at one point, they started to change the engine configuration on the wings and I was interested in why that happened.

Then, I was lucky enough to apply and get accepted to Aviation High School in Long Island City, and my inspiration for my career in engineering came from the faculty and staff at that school.

Kevin Bredenbeck, Chief Test Pilot

It started as a child, when I would listen to my father and other relatives talk about aviation, and tell stories about their military service. Also, those were the days of the space program, and I found myself in front of the TV every time there was a launch.

I hate to admit it, but I used to be a little emotionally unstable during those launches. I would get so emotionally involved that I would make myself sick so I couldn't go to school. It wasn't even a ploy to miss school. I just got totally wrapped up. So from that early age, the goal was to be an astronaut. That set the stage for becoming a test pilot.

Ken Arifian, Technical Fellow, Flight Controls

Going back to childhood, there wasn't an event, or person that inspired me to do this. I think I became an engineer solely because I like to do things with my hands. I knew I wasn't going to be an electrician or a plumber, but I got into engineering for the hands-on, and the practical work, as much as the theoretical. I mean, I like the theoretical, but I like seeing it come to fruition more. I grew up working on cars and with tools, and that all just sort of built up in me. Before the X2 project, it had been a while since I'd actually been able to work like that. But this afforded the opportunity to do hands-on work, which, in our business, has been downgraded over time.

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Sikorsky X2 Coaxial Rotor Helicopter

Steve Weiner, Director of Engineering Sciences

It was the manned space program. I watched every launch from Alan Shepard on. At the time, they were pushing everyone into math and science, you know, to try to catch the Russians. Even though I used to sit on my stoop--I grew up in Brooklyn, on Flatbush--and watch the Coast Guard helicopters from Floyd Bennett Field, I never considered myself a helicopter guy. I wanted to be an astronaut.

Dave Walsh, Chief of Test

I grew up in Syracuse, and Griffith Air Force Base was not too far from there. They used to fly a lot of supersonic jet fighters, and big bombers, and they would go over my house. I would hear the sonic boom at night, and see these giant, cool airplanes overhead, and just fell in love with airplanes.

So I was in love with planes, and I did well in the math and science subjects, so I gravitated to engineering. I wanted to work in flight test badly. It was the only thing I wanted to do. I didn't see myself sitting around as a designer. I wanted to be a flight test engineer and work with real aircraft. The only offer I got from a flight test group was from Sikorsky. So right out of college, I loaded up my car and drove down there. I've been there ever since.